The world’s second-largest gold miner, Barrick Gold, is understood to be eyeing up the $1.9bn De Grey Mining, which is also believed to be a future target for Gold Road Resources.
Sources say that North American mining giants have been paying close attention to De Grey for a possible buyout, with a rally in the gold price and the Australian dollar falling against the US dollar.
Barrick Gold sold its 50 per cent interest in the Super Pit gold mine in Western Australia to Saracen for $US750m in 2019, before Saracen merged with Northern Star.
This came after Barrick and Randgold merged in an $US18.3bn deal.
Barrick Gold opened a West Australia office about a year ago and is thought to be scouting for opportunities.
The Toronto-based group is the second-largest gold company globally behind Newmont.
Market experts say that De Grey makes sense for Barrick because it is the only gold mining asset in Australia that it would consider high-enough quality and of the right scale to add to its portfolio.
While Gold Road Resources owns about 20 per cent of De Grey and all signs are it is a keen suitor, it would need to use its own scrip to fund a transaction rather than cash.
Barrick, on the other hand, would be a cash buyer.
The share prices of both Gold Road and De Grey have rallied since the end of last month, but Gold Road is worth $1.65bn, less than De Grey, which has seen its market value increase to $1.9bn from $1.3bn in August.
At the Diggers and Dealers mining conference in Kalgoorlie in August, Gold Road sounded out investors about whether they would like Gold Road to make a play for De Grey Mining.
Gold Road inherited a 15 per cent stake in De Grey Mining this year after launching a $308m takeover of DGO Gold, which originally had the De Grey holding.
Gold Road has since purchased more shares during De Grey’s recent equity raising.
De Grey’s mining deposit is of a particularly high grade.
Its main focus is the Mallina Gold Project in Western Australia’s Pilbara, capable of producing 10.6 million ounces of gold.
But it is in the investing phase and in October launched an equity raising to secure $130m at $1 a share towards the pre-development phase of the Mallina project.
De Grey’s shares are now at $1.28.
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